Document Type : ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Authors
1 Department of Business Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran. Iran
2 Faculty of Management, Azad University of Saveh, Markazi, Iran
3 Department of Strategy and Business Policy, Faculty of Business Management, College of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
This study aims to identify hotel managers’ decision-making domains and explain the causal relationship structure governing business development in the hospitality industry using a system dynamics approach. The research is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative and exploratory in terms of approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with hospitality industry experts, including owners, senior managers, marketing and sales managers, consultants, and faculty members. Data analysis was conducted using thematic analysis, and the extracted themes were subsequently integrated into a causal loop diagram based on the principles of system dynamics. The findings revealed that hotel business development is the result of dynamic interactions among five main decision-making domains, including guest experience management, customer relationship management and loyalty building, marketing and market development, human resource management, and revenue and productivity management. Furthermore, the system structure consists of reinforcing and balancing feedback loops that simultaneously act as drivers of growth and constraints on business development, thereby influencing the sustainability of hotel performance. The results also clarify the boundary between variables controllable by managers and environmental factors beyond the scope of managerial decision-making, while identifying effective managerial levers for business development. The novelty of this research lies in presenting a systemic framework for explaining hotel business development based on feedback interactions among managerial domains; a framework that can serve as a foundation for developing quantitative system dynamics models, simulating managerial policies, and designing sustainable development strategies in the hospitality industry.
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